THE SCIENCE CONGRESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16941, 16 January 1923, Page 4

THE SCIENCE CONGRESS.

YESTERDAY’S PROCEEDINGS. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, January 15. Before the Science Congress this morning Dr Guy Scholefield read -x paper dealing with ‘Tho Economic Revolution in Polynesia.” At the close of Dr Scholofxeld’s paper *vn animated discussion took place. The president, Captain Pitt-Rivers, said the paper was one of the most interesting that Lad been road, and prompted a vast field of comment. He took it that Dr Scholefield suggested an a remedy for tho decay of ill© Polynesian races what really amounted to commerciali&ing them, making them part of the modern economic organisation. Personally he differed emphatically from that point of view. If economic- forces had produced amongst civilised nations what had occurred in Russia and elsewhere, could we sug-

j gesfc they would be any more successj ful if applied to Polynesians? As an 1 anthropologist lie thought they would j not consider the wisdom or otherwise of capitalism as a means of preserving the race. The trader always suggested creating a desire for things which he alone could sell. Another speaker laid stress on the fact that the Maoris were quite equal to Europeans in certain fields of thought, in psychology, in mathematics and so on. Their salvation was to bo found in developing them along those lines. When they entered the realm of commerce they were helpless, consequently it was useless to look for their salvation in the economic *Mr C. H. Wickens, president of the Social Science Section, gave particulars of the disappearance of the Australian blacks, and agreed with the wisdom of discussing these questions of administration m the interests of th. remaining races of the Pacific. Dr P. H. Buck, in proposing a. vote c l thanks, agreed with the lecturer that conditions m New Zealand were quite different from those in the Islands. The New Zealand Health Department had gene on right lines in appointing the chiefs as sanitary inspectors. thus preserving the value of the chief system and reinforcing it by the strength of the Government. Sav- ! ing was out of the question with the | Maoris. They had never done it. Their food stores were only for a. single season. As regards the supposed increase of the Maori race, he said that teachers of Native schools had filled in forms for him which showed that just over 50 per cent of the children had white blood in them. He did not agree that the Maori was going to disappear with the kiwi and weka. 3 hey would become more and more diluted with white blood and would be eventually absorbed. Dr Sch ole field, in reply, said it was a thousand pities that years ago we did not know as much of the Native races as we did to-day. ns v.e might then have left their civilisation alone. The race material in Polynesia to-day was not the unspoiled Native race that Captain Pi tt-R brers had worked among, but races whose social organisation wo had destroyed, who had almost disappeared. We- could not leave I them to die out. We could, not restore j their old system. He believed the only j v. ay to preserve them was by teaching j them to take their part in the comi petitivc life of the modern economic POLYNESIA. i “Th* Racial Dire oily of Polynesian j Peoples ” was dealt with in a paper j forwarded bv Mr Louis U. Sullivan, ! PI. D., assistant curator of the Pkysical Anthropology American Museum of ! Natural History. It was generally i held, he said, that the Polynesians | were a mixed people. The majority I of the students felt that the mixture i took place before migration into PolyI nesia. Professor Dixon, of the HarI vard TJniversitv. from a detailed study ! of available data on Polynesia, proj posed lour types, which wore tenta- ! tiveiv identified as uegrito. Melanesian. I Caucasian, and Malay. As a result of i further investigations, two types had i been isolated, which were tentatively ; called Polynesian and Indonesian. The characteristics of these two types were ! described. The Polynesian was strik j ingly Caucasian in appearance. At • I present it was impossible to determine • their exact place in the human family. The available data seemed to indicate | that the Polynesian was an interi mediate between Caucasians and Mon- ! £<>l6. T ,ie tvvo types entered the ; Pacific at different times, and possibly bv different routes. There was a Melanesian element in certain parts ot Polynesia as in Tonga, New Zealand and Easter Island. TLic influence o» Polynesians on Melanesia had been greater than that of the Melanesians 1 on Polynesia. There was a shorti headed 'type in Tonga, Samoa. Tahiti, ! Hawaii, and the Marquesas, which was I not Indonesian. The writer considered j them ns of Polynesian type, with an ! arti&cialiv flattened occiput. There ! had been recognised four types called Indonesian. M lanesian. Polynesian, i j, lK } Polynesians with deformed heads. 1 However, much work hod still to be done. . INSECT FAUNA. The origin and composition of the insect faunas of Australia ar.d New Zealand was dealt with by Dr F. J. Till yard, addressing the Biology see tioii. He said this was the first tixna an attempt had been made to extract general conclusion on the subject. The fossil evidence, he said, was confined to Australia, not a single fossil insect having been discovered in New Zealand. There appeared to have been at least three streams of immigration from the north, and three from the south. Ten elements were recognised to form the two faunas. Of these, nine formed complex Australian insect fauna, while only five could be recognised as contributing to Now Zealand fauna. SHEEP MAGGOT FLY. 11 The sheep maggot fly in New Zealand is not as serious a problem as :n Australia, but it is being tackled,' said Mi David Millar. Government entomologist. “ Four native, four Am*

exi#b here,*’ h© said, #fc of which the European blue, the Australian gree l and the golden-haired are responsible for tlie blowing of sheep. Soil-woolled and greasy adult sheep, and lambs at marking and weaning time are the most susceptible. Efficient crutchiog and dipping constitutes a) remedy. Parasites had been introduced to combs t the poKfc.” ; ART-WEAVING BY MAORLS. ‘ 4 Art-weaving—Its Development by Maoris,” was the subject of a lecture by Dr Back. Other Polynesian race I *, be said, had forgotten weaving favour of tho bark cloth, a supply «>f which the Maoris brought to New Zealand, but found climatically unsuitable. The Maoris had, therefore, re rived the lost art of weaving, for which flax was an abundant material. From basket designs to eel traps they evolved simple plaited designs, finally inventing the tied cloth from plaintwined weaving, with a two-ply weTt. The Maori inventive genius progressed to the four-ply weft, with which the better class of garments was made. Close twine weaving, as ir? the famous dog-skin cloaks, was a further development, and rapped twine-weaving, in beautiful geometrical coloured designs of taniko borders, marked the highest advance of all. Tbe two-pointed sticks upon which the Maori weaving was set up were not a degenerate representative of the forgotten loom, but were an independent creation, invented during the occupation of New Zealand. RAILWAY CURVES. Professor D. M. Y. Sommerville offered in a paper on c ‘ Railway Transition Curves.” read before the Engineering Section, some suggestions as j to how greater smoothness of running j and increased comfort to passengers j may he ensured in the passage of a railway train over a bend or curve of a 1 a line. He pointed out that in an ! ordinary transition curve the line was j banked up on one side and the passenger experienced a certain amount; of discomfort as lateral acceleration was changing, beginning and ending suddenly at tlie ends of the transition curve. By means of a more gradual form of transition curve, which was explained in detail in the paper, this i discontinuity was removed. The adop- j tion of curve he outlined, the lecturer stated, should lead to still greater smoothness and greater comfort to passengers. EARTHQUAKES AND ERUPTIONS. : In the course of a short address on <f Recent Earthquakes in New’ Zealand.” Dr C. E. Adams, Government Astronomer, stated that records of tho earthquakes were obtained from about eighty postmasters and others whose stations were distributed throughout the Dominion. ’The most severe earthquake in 1921 was that of June 29, which had an intensity of 8 on the Rossi-Forel scale. Its centre was near Gisborne. The Taupo earthquakes, be ginning in June, had not yet, he said, entirely subsided. The earthquake of December 25, had its centre in the Cheviot district, and had an intensity of 9 as shown in the Rossi-Forel scale. The highest intensity on this scale was 10. Dr J. A. Thomson. Director of the Dominion Museum, delivered _ an address on ci Eruptions in tho Now Zea-land-Tonga Volcanic Belt.” He said that the late Mr Percy Smith had given an excellent account of the Tarawera eruption, and that nearly all w* knew of the volcanic eruption in the Kermadec Islands has been recorded by him. Ruapehu appeared to be an extinct volcano, but the lake at its summit had been violently disturbed on several occasions, and stoam had been seen rising from it. No lava had been erupted from the actual crater of Ngauruhoe, but Mr Bidwill stated that on one occasion some lava flowed from a vent on its side. There had been many explosive eruptions and flames might have accompanied some of these. There had, said the lecturer, bee’several eruptions of vents on 1 ongariro, To Mnire and the Red Crater. Dr Friedlander had described one of these, which was accompanied by flames .. J different cdlours. The eruption #>f Tarawera on June 10. 1886. took everyone by surprise, but in the light of present knowledge there were a num her of signs of the coming eruption. Tbe geysers and hot springs of the district were more active than usual. Small masses of lava seemed to have welled up in some of the, lesser craters along the Tarawera rift. In 1900 the Waimangu geyser began to play from one of the small craters J along the Tarawera ritt.. In 1917 Frying Pan flat- blew out and de j stroved the WrJmangu vent. H j seemed to have been a true eruption. ! At "V hi to Island, in September. 1914. ! a tragedy occurred, nil tho sulphur workers on the island losing their j lives. Only a cat was saved. Enip- ! lions on Sunday Island, in the Kermodee group, occurred in 1814. .1872. 1886 j and in 1902. The speaker said t hat there j were ten volcanic vents in the longa Islands There were oalv three actual j volcanoes on the land, the otheis wcio submarine. Many eruptions had been ; recorded. This volcanic belt lrom. New Zealand to Tonga was evidently : a very active one, and systematic re- ' cords and observations were highly j desirable. The lecturer emphasised : the need for a volcano observatory, and i mentioned that eruptions could be prodieted, as had been done by Dr I. AJaggar in Hawaii. He also mentioned I that in Japan a serious eruption »i» : predicted a fortnight before it occur- j red. The neighbouring population n-ns removed and no lives were lost \\ ith our present knowledge Dr Thomson said that he firmly believed that she Tarawera eruption, its time and place, could have been predicted and thus live-, which had been lost could have been saved. , . . In rhp course of n brief address on -jv- Taupo Earthquakes of 1322." Professor E. Marsden remarked that these” earthquakes, which began in June 1922. were still continuing but were now very slight. The quakes had been felt as far west as Taumaru„ui. a few miles west ot Taupo township V large block of uiml on the north shore of the lake had dropped nine feet. The fall diminished, m the north ar.d petered out eight, or nine miles in that direction The ta.l had taken place over a period of several months. It- was not known, ae aoded. how far the fallen block extended under > Lake Taupo. No evidence of it was I seen at Tokaanu at the south end. A I post bad been put in the lake so that I any further movement of the block might l>e observed. Home-made sei* mogrnphs were installed at Wairakti and Taupo. The actual records were disappointing but very informative as to what should be done in the future The cause of the earthquakes was undoubtedly actonic. that was dependent on movements of the earth s crust, and not volcanic or due to subterranean explosion* 5 of anv kind. The tremors Tv*>rc very frequent during the early part of the period over which observe tions were made, up to 20 or .30 in an hour. Thfir intensity on the Rossi Fore I scale wa* from Ito 6. 1 being a. tremor imperceptible to the sens°s aftd 6 a somewhat violent shake No great material damage was done of the tremors were accompanied by rumblings and. a carious noise. In a subsequent discussion on the .•ldvisrtbilitv of establishing a volcano

Professor Marsden advocated the placing of portable seismologies 1 instillments at Rotorua: and taking them, if required, to any district where an earthquake had occurred. The after shocks would thus be recorded. A volcanological observatory on tho slopes of Tongaxiro was advocated bv Dr .). A. Thomson and Professor Burbridge. Professor L. A. Cotton .said that Wellington was not likely to be free for all time from earthquake shocks, and he therefore urged the fuller equipment of the Wellington Observatory. The meeting passed a resolution recommending the establishment of a volcanologioal observatory and additions to the instruments wfc* Wellington. ANTARCTICA. Sir Douglas Mawson lectured tonight at the Town Hall, under the auspices of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, liifi subject being “ Antarctica.. 5 ’ The hall was crowded ito the doors, and the lecturer had a most flattering reception. During the course of fha lecture he said that in common with every other region of the world tho great Antarctic zone held data of vital importance to science in the solution of its problems. If, therefore, the general advance of scientific inquiry was to go forward unhampered investigation of at least the broader aspects of Antarctic research must proceed hand-in-hand with the march of scientific inquiry in other lands, so that apart from exploring economic possibilities, and apart from the achievement of being the first to reach the pole, the prosecution of purely scientific investigation in that region was very desirable so far as opportunity and financial consideration would allow. The lecture was profusely illustrated by slides and films depicting the topography of the country, its ice fields and ice flows and bird and animal life in. Antarctica and subAntarctica. The penguin picture* were especially popular. At the close of the lecture Sir Douglas received a great ovation. PRESIDENT-ELECT. At a meeting of the council of the association this afternoon General Monash was chosen president-elect.